Reforming the voting process is necessary

We just had
a primary election this month with abysmally low turnout. It is time to examine
the voting process in this country and change our ways. The campaign for an
office is far too long, tiresome, and costly especially for president.

Education

We need to place more emphasis on not
only the electoral process but what is at stake in that process. It is
unconscionable that in the best country in the world we marvel at 60% turnout
in a presidential election. Contests in the recent Michigan primary election were decided by
less than 25% of registered voters. Local elections quite often have the
shameful turnout of merely 3-5%. This doesn’t even take into account the number
of citizens who have not bothered to register.

Registration

Citizens
are not required to vote in any election but they are required to register if
they want to vote. Registering should be easy and transparent and available to
all citizens. Registering for the first time is necessary when one reaches
voting age. Since we are a mobile society it is again necessary to register
after moving to a new location. Moving just prior to an election should not
disenfranchise people. Being a student should not bar one from voting either.

Campaign

Campaigns for office should begin no
earlier than six months prior to the election. Local elections are generally
not a problem in this regard but state and national campaigns stretch out over
too long a period. Our elected leaders need to do their job, not campaign for
office.

This time
frame would allow anyone with serious credentials to get his/her name in front
of the people in time to be on the primary ballot. A primary election, like the
one we had on August 3, is for the purpose of selecting a candidate for a
political party. That’s why we can vote only one party in a primary election.
Requirements for a candidate to get on the ballot need to be open enough so
that “third party” candidates (even fourth and fifth party) would have easy
access to the ballot.Once the
requirements are met, all candidates would have public funding for their
campaign and could spend no more.

Various
public debates and town hall meetings for each office would be televised for
all constituents to watch and/or listen to.

Primaries

There would
be one national primary for president in early July in which any registered
voter could cast his/her choice for any one of the candidates regardless of
party affiliation of the candidates or the voter. The same could apply to local
and state elections.

Election day(s)

Elections
for national office could be held over several days as happened in Florida in 2008 but the last day would be set up so that
the polls close at the same time all over the country except Hawaii. In this way there would be no
results posted early to influence later voters, except Hawaii.

In order to
encourage voting even local elections could be held on more than one day.

Paperless voting

Technology
is a wonderful modern tool to make life easier and more efficient use of time
with results produced in seconds or minutes. Voting technology gives us all
these benefits too. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 ordered some changes in
voting after the debacle of 2000 but it failed in one very important aspect. It
allowed paperless electronic voting machines. This means there is no way to
have a recount but more importantly there is no way to record votes in the case
of computer failure. And we all have experienced computer failures. Even more
significantly perhaps is the possibility of fraud inherent in such machines. A
programmer or hacker could change the code to produce results just different
enough to make the loser a winner. Voting is such a sacred right that the
paperless voting machines must be done away with. In 2009 17 states and DC were
still using paperless voting machines. Fortunately Michigan is not one of them.

There must
be uniform rules regarding the number of machines per registered voters around
the country. ID requirements must be as lenient as possible.

Changing
the rules this way would bring about several significant benefits. The process
would have more credibility and voters would have more options in a more
disciplined manner. The candidates would be on an equal footing even third
party candidates who seldom can make it in the current process.

.

Reference:

Michael Shearer, “Seventhings that could go wrong on election day”, Time, October 23, 2008.

Responses:

On line, copied here with permission of MidlandDaily News.

Chris R:

I agree on the registration process for 3rd party
candidates. They spend most of their time and money getting signatures and
attempting to become officially registered for an election. The system is
inherently rigged to keep the 2 parties that control everything...in control of
everything. This is even more of a problem b/c they both are essentially for
the same thing...the warfare/welfare state. They just like to divy up the loot
slightly differently.

By email:

I read it in the paper this morning..... and FULLY
AGREE.Expect you'll get lots of
positive response.

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Yes, Norbert,

I agree that reform of the voting process is needed.I voted in the primary but I am still
scratching my head on how little was really known about the candidates.I would have liked to split my ticket,
too.As I attempted to discern which
candidate would be best and I try to avoid "party" affiliation.And then, the independent candidates are at
an extreme disadvantage.A shorter
process with more of the financial aspects put towards issue development
instead of primary race costs would assist both the candidates and the voters
in determining which candidate best represents who the voter wants in
offce.

So, keep the torch alive on the need for reformation!

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Perhaps G.W. Bush’s greatest contribution to history will be
the changes brought about in the faulty voting process that stuck us with him
in the first place!

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Norb:8 15 10

Thank you for sharing your Forum article.

"Things" in this country have been based on
traditions that have outlived their original purpose. The country, the world
and our culture have changed -- some to the worse-- and much worse !

Base on "tradition" a court system is similarly
tradition bound, it takes some aggressive new thinking to get all that updated,
whereby examples from other countries may bring us some more modern solutions.

You ideas as to voting rights and voting processes are in
line with this. Our failure to get people interested in voting is, that some
consider the ritual a waste of time. They find that the "ins" --
having been "in" for several decades (e.g. our war monger Levin) --
have in fact run our countryfinancially
into the ground, but .leave us no way to get them out. People interested enough
to seek office -- lest they are millionaires already -- cannot find an
opportunity to become a candidate lest they schmooze the ones in power with
promises of follow their lead without ideas of "innovation".

So your proposals are timely and well suited to solve our
problem, but they are significantly underfunded to make it into public
consciousness.

Now substitute for "country" the "Catholic
Church" and everything else fall similarly into place. The last thing they
need are "innovators", even if the people leave the church in droves.
Let us do some new thinking there also.

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Norb,

I agree that we need to reform our voting rules, but some of
the most serious problems in our system are not addressed by your
suggestions.We need to get rid of the
electoral collage.That would force
presidential candidates to campaign in all states, not just in "contested"
states.As it is, voters like me who
live in a red or blue state but don't vote with the majority in our state are
disenfranchised.We need to elimiante
voter registration all together, not just make it easier.The government can tell if you paid your
taxes or not, surely they can determine if you are elgible to vote.Just show up at the poll and give your SSno
and have them check you on a computer system the first time you vote at that
location. Next time they will know you.Mosts countries do not require registration anyway.Make election days national holidays, so you
don't have to talk off work to vote.Yea, I know polls are open early and late, but plenty of people comute
long distances and work two jobs.I
don'tthink multiple day elections would
be a good thing; it gives too much opportunity for exit polls to influence
results. Keep former office holders from ever becoming lobbyists.The revolving door we have (US Rep becomes
lobbyist) is bad.I like the idea of 6
month max campaign - your best idea.